Free Which Way Freedom by Joyce Hansen Page A

started to walk again and stumbled.
    Obi reached for him. “Let me carry you, Buka,” he offered.
    Buka shooed him away. “I fine. We stop soon an’ find shelter.” They continued walking until the ground became muddy. They stepped carefully, making sure that what looked like a tree branch in the dark was not really a snake.
    As the sky began to lighten, they reached an area of firmer ground covered with tall grass. They decided to stop and sleep. Obi wished he knew what Easter was thinking as she helped him gather branches and leaves for them to crawl under.
    Easter took shelter first. “Keep watch a while,” Buka whispered to Obi. “Make sure it safe here.” Obi sat down, holding the shotgun across his knees. He thought about Wilson and John Jennings and wondered how far they’d tracked them and in what direction they’d gone.
    Obi couldn’t keep watch very long and soon fell asleep from exhaustion. When he woke up, he immediately reached for the shotgun and checked to see whether Easter was still in the shelter. She slept soundly next to Buka.
    He stood up stiffly and looked around. Though sunlighthad brightened the swamp somewhat, shadow and mist seemed to be there permanently. Greyish-brown moss hung heavily from the large oak trees. These, along with high grasses, created a natural shelter.
    Obi listened carefully for the dreaded sound of dogs and spun around when he heard a slight rustling near him. Easter crawled out of the shelter. She opened the sack and took out a potato, acting as if Obi wasn’t there.
    â€œEaster, you tell me you want to run,” he said, pointing his finger in her face as she leaned over the sack. “I tell you it best you stay, but your head hard as stone.” Easter sat down, took a bite out of the potato, and stared at a lizard as it slithered over a log. Obi gave up. He walked over to a little brook a few feet away. Dousing his face with the cool, clear water, he decided not to worry about Easter anymore.
    She head too thick to understand why we have to leave Jason.
    Buka crept slowly and painfully from under the pile of leaves. He barely nibbled at a piece of meat while Obi and Easter prepared to start out. “Children, you keep walking east,” he said slowly. “The way the sun rise. Remember, when you get to the river, you see the farm. Gabriel take you ’cross the river in the boat. Remember he name—Gabriel.”
    Obi peered into Buka’s creased, black face. “You talk like you not goin’,” he said anxiously.
    â€œWho know what happen in this life, Obi,” Buka mumbled. “You get there. I see to that.”
    Obi looked at Easter. She had turned her face away from them.
    By the third night of running, their bodies seemed to melt into the shadows and take the shape of the trees and bushes. Buka “saw” with his ears, hands, and feet as well as his eyes. Once he limped into a spot and immediately backed away. “Quicksand,” he had said, feeling the ground with his hands and practically crawling. “Walk here—this firmer ground.”
    Obi noticed that Buka had slowed his pace quite a bitafter they had walked a while. “I carry you.” Obi said. This time Buka accepted his offer.
    He lifted the old man onto his back, and Easter picked up the sack and the gun. “Step careful,” he rasped into Obi’s ear. “Put one foot before the other. You feel sinkin’, then you stop. We goin’ through thick mud an’ then a creek. After that the ground firm up. When you feel it firm, you near the farm.”
    â€œYou goin’ there with us. Why you waste breath for so much direction?” Obi tried to sound confident, but he was nervous. He listened to the barking, which had started up again.
    â€œYou have to know what to do,” Buka said. He began to cough and choke. Obi put him down until the old man caught his breath. Easter stood